Feed in Tariff, RHI, ECO Grants, Green Deal

Feed In Tariffs (FiT),  and the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), the Green Homes vouchers and Energy Company Obligation (ECO)

The Feed In Tariff has now finished but PV & Wind can still a good investment providing you have a good site and high direct usage of the electricity produced.  The Marches Renewable Energy Grant is available for businesses, charities, NGOs, but not for domestic installations.

The RHI is available for anyone fitting a biomass boiler, heat pump or solar thermal system, it pays out quarterly over seven years for domestic or 20 years for commercial installations. To access the domestic scheme (individual dwellings only) you will need an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) that's under 2 years old and any accessible lofts or cavities will need to be insulated (or evidence provided as to why this cannot be done). The current domestic scheme has been extended to April 2022, the non domestic version will end April 2021.

The Green Homes Voucher scheme is now running until end of March 2022.  Householders and landlords can get up to 66% of the cost of works up to a total grant of £5k (or 100% and £10k for homeowners on certain benefits).  You will need to use installers accreditted with Trustmark who are in short supply, see www.trustmark.org.uk. Beware you main need to search through different categories to find all the installers, eg External Wall Insulation is separate from Insulation (cavity/internal/external).  New gas & oil boilers are not relevant measures, heat pumps are, but any money claimed will be deducted from RHI payments if you apply for that as well.  Money for double glazing and some other 'secondary measures' is only available if you are also claiming a 'primary measure'.  See https://www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-for-the-green-homes-grant-scheme for more detail or contact a local energy advisor. 

ECO is now focussed on affordable warmth for those on benefits, although local authorities can also put people forward for the scheme.

Unfortunately the Government has relaxed the ECO targets so the money available per tonne of carbon saved has made it not worth applying in most cases, however there is a separate ECHO scheme for those whose boilers are broken beyond repair, see http://www.epplus.org.uk/projects/echo-the-boiler-replacement-scheme/.